Witness
| Katy Perry
Witness
Witness is the fifth studio album by American singer Katy Perry. It was released on June 9, 2017, by Capitol Records. Four singles aided the album's release: "Chained to the Rhythm" featuring Skip Marley on February 10, 2017, "Bon App tit" featuring Migos on April 28, "Swish Swish" featuring Nicki Minaj on May 19, and "Hey Hey Hey" on January 12, 2018. Witness received mixed reviews from music critics. It topped the charts in Canada, Spain, and the United States while reaching number two in Australia, South Korea, Mexico, and New Zealand and the top five in nine other nations. To accompany the album's release, the singer broadcast herself for four days on YouTube with a four-day live-stream titled Katy Perry Live: Witness World Wide. She also embarked on Witness: The Tour in support of it. --Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
On her fourth album, the pop superstar finds a more unifying sound but struggles to come up with lyrics that aren't plain cringe-worthy.
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Billboard
In the end, "purpose" does in fact hold its own on Witness -- the true nature of the album's intent just got lost in a vain translation from artist to audience. It might not be as conventionally #woke as initially broadcast, but Katy is still clearly more wide awake than ever, and looking towards the future like few of her peers are currently daring.
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Spin
It is an album full of bizarre choices that has the inherent appeal of a spectacular failure, but that’s about it.
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Rolling Stone
Katy Perry Navigates a Less Bombastic Pop Universe on ‘Witness’
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Variety
What we don’t have here is the kind of obvious smash to which all of America would plainly say: Baby, you’re a firework. But the album counts at least as a sparkler — the kind you hold in your hand for 45 seconds in the summer, if not the enduring, inset kind Marilyn extolled.
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The Telegraph
For about half, Perry appears to be striving for meaning at the expense of catchy choruses. On the other half, it is as if she has lost her nerve and been persuaded to sing choruses that have no meaning. It is the sound of someone trying to cover too many bases.
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Consequence of Sound
It has great singles, forgettable singles, forgettable filler, and songs that go clunk. As a vehicle for Billboard hits, it’s perfectly competent, but by the second listen, your finger might be itching for the skip button.
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NME
It isn’t about subtlety, but if you’re going to deliver important messages about female autonomy to a young audience, it’s surely better to shout than whisper.
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Entertainment Weekly
Katy is reflective, anxious, and fired up
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Pretty Much Amazing
You can strut and vogue to it all night, but like those tequila shots you take between tracks at the club, you might feel bad about it the next day.
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The Atlantic
Katy Perry Conquers the Early ’90s on Witness -- The singer’s fifth album drives the pop-music nostalgia machine forward a few years, with fun results.
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Uproxx
She borrows everything she sees, but completely lacks vision -- A great album could've redeemed her botched release, but sadly, there's barely an original thought on it.
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Fansided
It’s been one year since she released her polarizing opus of “purposeful pop.” Although it missed the mainstream, it’s a misunderstood masterpiece primed for delayed impact.
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Drowned In Sound
It’s a real shame it has come out as a bit of a disjointed mess, as there’s a decent record somewhere in there, but it gets lost in the fog of endless guest productions and co-writes that miss the point entirely.
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Washington Blade
At 15 tracks and nearly an hour long, it's is a slog to get through. The sameness in sound and vibe is numbing.
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USA Today
It's a fine breakup album. Why didn't she just say so? Instead, Perry sold Witness as a political statement and paired it with an alienating marketing campaign, a self-defeating process that undermined the album's many strengths.
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All Music
It's a conceptual muddle but that incoherence could've been excused if there were hooks in either its grooves or melodies.
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Pop Matters
Who's going to bear Witness? The listeners, of course, because this album, unfortunately, proves to be one hell of a burden.
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AV Music Club
Everything about it—starting with its extended promotional cycle and ending with the album itself—feels like Perry trying to run away from her strengths.
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Culture Affinity
It is a definite progression in my mind and I applaud her for her adventurous exploration, even if it is not her biggest success. She unleashes her true self, and through these fifteen songs, we listeners gain a new perspective to the woman we have been listening to for years.
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The Spot 518
Overall, it does a satisfactory job in entertaining the listener with lyrics of self-growth and romance but mainly lacks her original “purposeful pop” message.
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The Young Folks
She is trying to be both the colorful goofball and in-touch balladeer, but the balance still seems off.
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The Washington Post
At best, she sounds like she’s trapped in a purgatory, pantomiming progress, giving an endless pep talk to her own reflection. She wants to look out into the world, but she can’t look away from the mirror.
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The Times
It's pop at its most mechanical and formulaic
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Puremzine
She has put together an incredibly pensive pop compilation that feels rich with emotional depth and meaning. Her engrossingly elegant vocal work combined with the compellingly poignant instrumentation of each song is sure to seduce a sizable audience.
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Hot Press
Generic comeback belies her supposed “woke” phase.
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High Snobiety
On ‘Witness,’ Katy Perry’s Purposeful Pop Falls Short of a Real Impact
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Time Out
K-Pez’s new album is full of mixed messages but its heart is definitely in the right place
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First Post
There are some hits, and some misses. She's lost, heartbroken, struggling with her emotions and the album is a portrayal of this.
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Observer
Katy Perry’s Mostly Solid ‘Witness’ Is Not the Disaster Critics Claim -- Ridiculous PR stunts aside, album is full of dance tracks and power ballads
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The Arts Desk
It’s her most enjoyable and consistent album.
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Prefix Magazine
Newly woke star's fifth album falls short on 'purpose,' but not on tunes.
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Celeb Mix
She may not be roaring, but this indisputably deserves to be heard
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Slate
The problem isn’t that her being inauthentic. Inauthenticity is what we’ve always gone to her for.
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The Daily Beast
The singer’s transition into “purposeful pop” fizzles with her meandering new album, in which she sings about email and, uh, Chinese water torture.
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The Duke Chronicle
To not mince words, it is not good. I haven’t found many overly positive reviews out there, and I have yet to find another KatyCat who enjoys this album (though they’re probably out there) for any reason other than they’ve drunk the Katy Kool-Aid.
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Press Play Ok
Never mind a witness, Katy Perry would struggle to get her own fans to show up for jury duty and bail her out of this mess.
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Brent Music Reviews
Pop superstar struggles to find her footing on her fifth studio album. Sometimes it works, while other times it doesn’t.
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Cryptic Rock
Perhaps she tried to do too much with it, and with a lot of content to cover, her feelings could be lost in translation. Ultimately, the album lacks the big hooks that propelled Perry’s previous hits.
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Wandering Wolff
The album overall is by far her weakest work and it’s going to take more than a Big Brother style live stream for anyone to see her as more than just a cliché pop singer.
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Nylon
What it looks like we’re actually bearing witness to now, more than anything, is an artist grasping for relevance, and coming up short.
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Vendor
Whether you choose to believe that she is genuine in her newfound approach or not is up to you. But even if you are a devout fan of edgy, buzzcut Katy, this reveals a pop artist struggling to adapt to changing trends, clinging on to a hastily-constructed concept.
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Hollywood Life
I love Katy Perry, and I wanted to love 'Witness.' But apart from a handful of tracks, the album sounds as generic as they come.
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The Big Issue
Purposeful pop needn’t be such a drag -- Katy Perry gets serious on her new album Witness, with mixed results.
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El Broide
This should have been the record which further cements her position as one of the best female pop stars on the planet. However, it’s her most disappointing record of her career so far.
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Blackfire
It's a jumble of lackluster, out-of-touch singles trying to pass off as a cohesive pop album.
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Random J Pop
Lukewarm critical reception and the drama surrounding its release will overshadow the music, which may be for the best.
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The Ringer
For years, the pop star claimed to be a dark horse. Now, with a tentatively received new album, a failed moment of wokeness, and an entreaty to peace with Taylor Swift, she might finally have something to come back from.
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Stereogum
Perry’s exploits might be what helped her stay in the headlines over the years, but killer pop songs are what always kept her atop the charts.
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Thomas Bleach
People will find a way to complain or try and tear her down but this is actually a bold collection of experimental pop tracks which sees her trying to evolve as an artist. Is it her strongest material yet? No. But there's enough good moments to make this album a comfortable 3/5 listening experience.
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Spirit Radio
While the Californian girl’s fun-filled pop platters used to be tasty, hot’n’cold, she’s gone off the boil in a big way.
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Popfection
All in all, it shines with production, but lacks in the core part of a perfect record that it tries to advertise with so much effort – the message, though it has been clear that Katy’s not the best lyricist out there (something she can take notes from her rival perhaps!).
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The Filtered Lens
The album’s jarring transitions and limp lyrics kill any forward momentum Perry was attempting to build up. it feels like a missed opportunity on a grand scale, one that unintentionally and
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V Magazine
What Witness shows is that she can create a strong sonic identity and consistent narrative rather, and sound good doing it. Hearing Perry this vulnerable yet self-assured is refreshing and shows the potential that she could fulfill in the future.
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mxdwn
It unfortunately lacks direction. The album has no anchor, as every single has a different purpose. The album has little nuggets of the “California gurl” fans have come to know, but it jumps too far off the beaten path and leaves listeners questioning the artist behind the album.
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Renowned For Sound
During the 2016 US Presidential election, we were introduced to a ‘woke’ Katy Perry who campaigned extensively for Hillary Clinton, yet in 2017 we have a racially insensitive Perry who believes she can get away with appropriating black culture for her own career success.
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Inquirer
Overall, it falls short. The album’s songs are almost as awkward as her recent actions.
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The Perfect Tempo
Despite promising first single 'Chained To The Rhythm', Katy has somehow lost her identity and fun factor on a forgettable and by the numbers fourth album.
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Star 2
Witness the transformation of a more grounded Katy Perry.
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Courier
Overall, it is a disappointment. As much as she hyped this album as highly personal and political, it dove as deep into her personality as a two-inch puddle and showed us nothing more than the schtick she’s known for.
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